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This review is years overdue. Tatsu Ramen is THE BEST – and my absolute favorite restaurant in the Little Osaka neighborhood.

Both Jon and I have had bouts where we’ve stayed home sick and had Tatsu ramen every day for a week. I’ve taken many a friend and family there for an impressively delicious meal and converted them into fellow Tatsu lovers.

First thing to do when you get to Tatsu: place your order on iPads near the door. Explore the menu, select your broth, level of spiciness, garlic, onion, protein (pork, free-range chicken, or organic tofu), and any add-ons or sides. Then pay, and take your receipt to the wait staff who will seat you before sending your order to the kitchen. Your food is always steaming and fresh. The owner and creator of Tatsu Ramen modeled this after what he experienced in his native Japan where they order on a vending-type machine, and collect a ticket with their order on it to present for their food. I like that Tatsu takes a modern twist on this, and more importantly it’s not pre-packaged ramen broth or anything. It’s all made fresh for Tatsu.

Tatsu might not have the most traditional ramen, but in my opinion, it beats traditional ramen. The fried garlic topping makes for a healthy(ish) and delicious flavor profile along with the 10 other bold ingredients in their Bold Ramen, my favorite item on their menu. The eggs are perfectly seasoned and soft boiled. The yolk, still gushy, provides an even richer mouthful with your noodles and broth.

Their fried rice is also pretty damn good.My 1-year-old niece couldn’t get enough of it. I like to think I have high fried rice standards, but this restaurant meets my demands. Not too greasy, a bit of stickiness to hold it together, plenty of aromatics (green onion), flavorful meat (char siu), and egg (the best part!).

The above is for the food ONLY. The service, sorry to say, is subpar. In many recent visits, it’s taken much too long to get seated. I can only say it was “much too long” because there were a few separate occasions in which groups who ordered much later than my group got seated and FINISHED their food before my group was even seated. I was only ever in a group of 2 or 3, so it couldn’t be attributed to needing a big area to seat a large group. Service has been pretty disappointing, but their food is so addicting I still manage to crave it and go! (Getting items to go is pretty much our standard now so we don’t have to deal with the service)